I met Farmer D for the first time last week in the most unlikely of places.

It was on the 18^th floor of the Atlanta Financial Center. The man from whom many Dunwoody gardeners get their soil amendments was standing by a window in the City Club of Buckhead.

Looking at other high-rises and across the mostly flat roofs of mid-rises and other buildings, he began musing about the untapped possibilities of roof-top gardening.

Daron Joffe, the Farmer D of Farmer D Organics retail organic garden center on Briarcliff Road  near Whole Foods Market, was high above Buckhead to speak to the June breakfast meeting of Team Ivy. This is an Atlanta area networking group of 2,000 alums from Ivy League and other selective universities. His topic: "The organic industry is here to stay: Market opportunities.”

Organics, as Farmer D (that sounds so much more appropriate than Daron!) told his audience, is really the “New Urbanist Movement” in America.

Farmer D defined New Urbanism as a movement in which communities are looking for ways to integrate agriculture and edible landscapes into their daily lifestyles to gain more control over their food. He cited Atlanta as a leader in this new way of thinking.

We are beginning to realize, he pointed out, that the distribution model of big grocery chains, which inextricably link the cost of food to the price of petroleum, is outdated. Backyard gardens, school gardens, community gardens and urban farms not only give people more control over their food, they help families spend time together in a garden rather than in front of the TV.

New urbanism is all around us in Dunwoody. We see it at the school gardens at Kingsley, Vanderlyn and other schools, in retirement communities such as Dunwoody Pines and in community gardens at Brook Run Park, Georgetown, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, the Jewish Community Center and at other locations around the city.

Organic farming changes lives

Looking out across Buckhead and envisioning perhaps salad greens, squash or beans growing from commercial rooftops, Farmer D told me an interesting story about Pattie Baker, aka Sustainable Pattie  and a leader in new urbanism in Dunwoody.

Pattie’s daughter learned about a lemon cucumber from a talk Farmer D was giving at her school. She went home and raved about it to her Mom. Farmer D said Pattie came to him and wanted to know what was up with this lemon cucumber.

Farmer D told Pattie about the lemon cucumber but also about organic farming and sustainability. “He changed my life,” Pattie said when I told her about Farmer D’s story. Pattie, in turn, has helped change many other lives by leading volunteer gardening projects that have contributed literally tons of vegetables and herbs to Food Pantries.

Farmer D especially likes partnering with schools and boys and girls clubs and educating children about gardening. “We’re cultivating stewards,” he said.

One of his newest projects is at Scottish Rite Hospital in Sandy Springs where Farmer D is involved in putting in a garden. It will be part of an obesity awareness campaign but also will serve as a healing space. 

Urban farming is the life for me

 By 2020, Farmer D predicted, 20 percent of the food grown in the United States will be grown in urban centers.

Farmer D is doing his part.

Over the past fourteen years, he has founded and managed organic farms all over the country. He has been named the Biodynamic Rookie Farmer of the Year, was one of only eight recipients nationwide to receive a Joshua Venture Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs, was selected as one of the Top 20 brightest talents under age 40 in Atlanta by Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Magazine and was named one of the Top 40 under 40 by Georgia Trend Magazine.

Savannah Economic Development Authority’s Creative Coast also honored Farmer D Organics with the Spirit of Innovation Award for “Most Sustainable Business.”

Farmer D’s line of signature products include Farmer D Organics Biodynamic Blend Organic Compost, which is a staple in Dunwoody gardens. It is made from Whole Foods Market spoils and is available at Whole Foods Markets throughout the Southeast.

A road of twists and turns

Getting to this point wasn’t easy for Farmer D.

His journey began in his native South Africa and took him to a Sandy Springs neighborhood. He is still bothered by memories of watching the forested area around that Sandy Springs home turned into a subdivision.

It took him to Israel where the energy and the relationship he saw between the people and the ancient land stirred his first interest in farming.

It also took him to Madison, Wis., where he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin. He now acknowledges that was not the best career path for him. But, he met people there who were interested in food sustainability, and they changed his life.

His “A-ha!” moment came during the end of his freshman year when he was eating a turkey sandwich. Pondering the origin of the ingredients in the sandwich, he realized that he, as well as most of us, have no relationship to our food – and we eat three meals a day!

That thought led him to the university’s Agriculture Department to learn about food and farming. As a result, he found out about and attended a bio-dynamic farming workshop. That, he said, “blew my mind!’

Bio-dynamic farming he told the Team Ivy alums of Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia and other elite schools gathered high above Buckhead, treats the Earth in a holistic way, even more so than sustainable farming.

It was during the summer of his freshman year when he first was tagged with the nickname, Farmer D. Others, seeing his passion for organics, started calling him by the same name.

Through several business ventures – a farm and even a pizza business – he never used the name. Finally, though, he decided to grow Farmer D into a brand.

He’s now using that brand to help landholders of all types save money, conserve water and fuel, reduce waste and chemical use, promote sustainability and create a planet of healthy communities.

 Who knows? Maybe the lettuce, tomatoes, scallions and other ingredients in salads served at the City Club of Buckhead or one of the area’s trendy restaurants will soon be harvested from a bio-dynamic bed on a nearby roof.